


push pin comfort

by kuro49



Series: television!AUs [8]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Pushing Daisies
Genre: Gen, pushing daisies!AU where Herc is the pie maker and chuck is chuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-20 23:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1529999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First touch: life. Second touch: death. </p>
<p>Or Herc brings Chuck back to life with a single touch in exchange for his wife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	push pin comfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [windsweptfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/windsweptfic/gifts).



> Inspired by [wantonlywindswept](http://wantonlywindswept.tumblr.com/post/68042371299/pr-au-idea-pushing-daisies)'s prompt over on tumblr of a pushing daisies!AU that broke my heart. Like canon!Hansens wasn't heartbreaking enough, I'm a masochist and decided that this prompt needs to be filled. Originally posted on tumblr (like 5 months ago), brushed off and made a little longer to be archived here.
> 
> Quick summary for those not familiar with the premises of _[Pushing Daisies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_Daisies)_ : Ned the pie maker can reanimate the dead with a single touch. But it's not without a few conditions, if something is revived for longer than a minute, something else with a similar life value nearby with die in balance. And if he touches the revived a second time, they die again, just permanently this time. (And if you haven't watched this show before, it's like the best thing ever so I think you should definitely give it a try! :D)

Chuck opens his eyes.

The rush of air into his lungs is a shock, his dad’s red rimmed eyes are too. He is eleven and why is his dad holding on to him so tight, he can barely breathe—

"…Are you okay, dad?"

Even if Herc knows what he is capable of, the flood of relief nearly floors him still. And instead of replying, Herc just holds the kid closer to his heart for one more moment.

What happens after is never repeated.

 

Herc learns that life has a way of balancing itself out. First touch: life. Second touch: death. He is an anomaly, and one minute is all he gets. (A lifetime is what he gets though, if he is willing to let another go in its place.) The day he loses Chuck is also the day he loses Angie.

The day he gets Chuck back with a single touch to the back of the kid’s neck is still the day he loses Angie.

 

Even if the scars will always remain in its place, it isn’t until a decade later that he imagines the loss will finally begin to scab over.

Chuck has Max held close to his chest, the dog slobbering over the kid’s t-shirt, just as Herc comes in from the kitchen.

"Dinner isn’t ready yet, old man?" Chuck looks at him, looks away, and Herc hates himself for what they’ve become when he returns the Hansen scowl. "If you’re so hungry, you can come and make it yourself."

Instead of answering, Chuck stills before he is touching his forehead to their dog’s. Herc stands in silence, watching as Chuck lets Max lick at his face before he lets him down from his lap with a determined set to those shoulders. The kid murmurs something that may have been _go handsome!_ as he lets go of Max so the dog can waddle over to Herc by the door.

 

Chuck is twenty-one, and Herc has never hugged the kid a second time since he’s eleven and died in his sleep only to wake up in his dad’s arms for one last time.

Chuck is twenty-one, and for the last ten years he’s never touched his dad a second time since that night. The only words they exchange these days are when they are in the same room and Chuck is moving around the same time Herc is.

“Behind you.” Chuck would announce when he comes in.

“Not moving.” Herc would reply with a short glance and stays still.

“Turning.”

Herc tells himself that it’s better this way, that with Chuck in the next room, always the next room instead of the same, there will be less of a risk and that he would be safe.

 

Max lays a paw to his foot and nudges his nose at his leg until Herc is crouching down to pet the dog with a sigh. What he gets though is not Max’s fur beneath his fingertips, what he gets is Max launching himself at him until the dog is lying on his chest, tongue lolling out of his mouth to lick Herc’s face in a terrible imitation of a doggy kiss.

He stills for a second before he turns his head to glance at Chuck, and there, twisted over the kid’s mouth, is something that doesn’t resemble a scowl as he stands, brushing nonexistent dirt off his pants.

"I’ll set the table." Chuck tells him gruffly before turning to their dog with an accusing finger that Max eagerly turns to. "And you, less enthusiasm next time."

And for another moment, Herc just lies there on the living room floor with a soft tilt to his mouth, Max laying on his chest, licking sloppy kisses all over his face in place of his son.

 

XXX Kuro


End file.
